See how the picks stack up heading into the homestretch

No. 10: MAKO Surgical

The higher you climb, the higher you have to fall; little-known MAKO Surgical (NASDAQ:MAKO) knows this better than anyone.

The company actually sat atop this list after the first quarter, then dropped nearly 40% in Q2 to sixth place. In Q3, it crumbled further, with 32% losses that kicked it all the way to last place.

Shares especially took a hit last quarter when the company posted another loss — one that widened from the year before. Revenue did grow by double digits, but higher operating costs and expenses offset that silver lining, and investors continued to flee.

MAKO, of course, was a volatile play to begin with. This small-cap, niche medical company was banking on a narrow product line: MAKOplasty procedures. That’s why any pick like MAKO is high-risk, high-reward.

At the beginning of the year, though, it looked like the scales were tipping toward the “high-reward” side of that dichotomy. Heading into the last quarter, the opposite is true.